Late In The Evening
by Noritsu
Summary: Raimundo & his children, with a sprinkling of Kimiko at the end. Set many years after the series ends. Fluffy oneshot.


Xiaolin Showdown

Late In The Evening

Authoress: Noritsu

Disclaimer

I **do not** own the Xiaolin Showdown characters, or the Xiaolin Showdown universe. They are copyrighted and belong to Christie Hui and Warner Brothers.

The storyline, however, is mine. So no pilfering, please. Thanks.

**TUN** Publishing Company

June, 2007

**T**he**U**sual**N**onsense

**Late In The Evening**

Rai sighed, pulled the glasses from his face, and began to rub the bridge of his nose.

After years of reading small chinese characters on ancient yellowed parchment scrolls, he had reluctantly caved in to the necessity of the wire rims that did nothing to diminish the handsome countenance which they adorned whenever he needed to read something.

His twisted sense of humor had prompted him to pick out the pewter rims, because they matched the few strands of gray hair that had begun to invade the mass of dark brunette that framed his face like a mane, but only when it was down. During the day, it was kept tightly bound in a pony tail, with a piece of white fabric at the nape of his neck, so he could see.

Rai groaned and reached around to rub said nape, his hands automatically moving from the sore muscles to the fabric. With the binding unwrapped, he ran his fingers through the silky, chestnut hair, 'combing' it to put it into some kind of shape, however vague, so it wouldn't just hang there in a lumpy mess.

Having done that, he propped his chin in his hand, and started the other nighttime ritual he usually engaged in at this hour, which was arguing with himself as to whether or not he should stay up a little longer and put more memories down on his scroll paper or, if he should tidy things up and go to bed.

His eyes narrowed in thought as he studied the flickering candle fire of the lamp that hung inside his office door. Years ago it was only the scroll library, but Master Fung had told him he could also use it as his own little office – as long as – he was willing to tackle the task of straightening out the scrolls by going through them, sorting them into alphabetical order according to content, and labeling them before he put them back into the slots.

He snorted in amusement at the memory. It took him a little over a whole year to rearrange the scrolls according to the order Master Fung had mentioned.

Omi took great pleasure in complaining that he couldn't find anything anymore, because the scrolls weren't where they were supposed to be. In _his_ opinion, of course.

"_For many years have I studied these scrolls. For many years have I taken it upon myself to __memorize the location of each scroll.__** And now you are rearranging them!"**_

A soft laugh escaped him, and he looked down at his scroll again. He vaguely wondered if Omi's written account of the battles they'd fought against the Heylins would be even remotely close to his. His and Omi's recollections, even after all these years, were still somewhat opposite in their points of view, although not quite as much as they'd been in their youth.

He sighed again and rolled the scroll back into its metal housing. It had been a long day, he was tired, his brain was fried, and he needed, very badly, to get some sleep.

"Daddy?"

He immediately stopped in mid-roll, and his wind sense pulled his gaze over to the point of origin of the voice.

Standing in the door frame was the Gnome of Many Questions.

His shoulders slumped. Almost immediately thereafter, his brain kicked back into high gear, and he began running down the list of actions he could employ to convince the child he needed to get back to bed post-haste.

"Um, daddy?"

He froze.

_No! Not the puppy dog eyes! _

It was too late. The young boy's royal blue eyes were wide with pleading, complete with the lower lip stuck out slightly in a small pout. Apprehension rolled off his small, lithe frame, an indication that he was more worried than he appeared as to how his father would choose to deal with this late night intrusion into his work.

Rai closed his eyes. "Yes, sweetie?"

The boy smiled. "I couldn't sleep."

Rai opened his eyes. "Why can't you sleep?"

The boy shifted his feet a little. "I keep wondering about something."

Rai groaned inwardly. If he answered his son's question, it would most likely encourage him to spout off a short litany of other related-to-the-original-subject questions, hence the reason for the nickname. On the other hand, if he didn't allow him to ask at least a few of the questions, he'd go off on a whiny rant about how he couldn't sleep because his mind was filled with 'lotsa things that keep chasin' each other around'.

Rai carefully placed the re-wrapped scroll on the left side of his desk. He got up, pushed the chair in and walked over to his son. Reaching down, he scooped the boy up and walked out into the hallway.

"You can ask me what you want to ask me on the way back to your bed," he said in the usual, firm, do-not-argue-with-me tone of voice he used when dealing with this sort of problem.

"When is Omi coming to visit?"

"Well – "

"Is he really bringing Master Guan with him? I never met Master Guan!"

"Well – "

"What's Master Guan like? Is he scary?"

"Son – "

"Are you gonna show us how you can fight him? I never seen you fight nobody before!"

Rai stopped abruptly in his tracks. He gave his son one of his patented stern looks. "Do you realize how many questions I've managed to answer so far?"

His son gave him a puzzled look.

"Think real hard. How many have you asked, and how many have I answered?"

"Um, a lot, and…..none?"

Rai nodded his head. "That's right. And why do you think that I haven't answered any of them?"

The boy regarded his father's eyebrow as it crept up into his hairline. "Um, because I keep talking?"

Rai smiled. "That's right. You need to work on remembering to stop long enough to let the person answer before you go on to the next question."

His son let out a small sigh. "I'm sorry." He proceeded to utilize the puppy dog look again.

Rai rolled his eyes. "Okay, let me see if I can remember the order you asked them in." He sifted back through his memory of the questions his son just asked. "Okay, in order – in a few days; yes; he's a very nice man; no, he just looks like it; and finally – I'm not sure.

There was silence for a few minutes as his son sorted through the answers and tried to match them up to the questions he'd asked. Then he looked at his dad again, in a sort of sideways manner. He bit his lower lip.

"Um, when's Clay gonna come back?"

Rai closed his eyes, and held back an uncharacteristic whimper. For some reason, he felt like beating his head against the wall.

He turned the last corner of the hall that would bring them to their bedrooms. As he did so, he found himself, once again, stopping abruptly in his tracks, although, this time, for a different reason.

Standing in the middle of the hallway, chewing rather pensively on her lower lip, and clutching a worn, raggedy teddy bear she called Ninja Fwed, was the Sprite of Eternal Hunger.

For a brief moment, time came to a halt. Her emerald gaze locked with her father's forest green one, took in the fact that he was holding her older brother, and shifted, ever so slightly, to a point somewhere behind him, down the hall from where they'd just come.

Suddenly, and without preamble, she launched into the statement that was weighing on her mind. "Daddy, I'm firsty." A pause. "And I wan' anofer cookie."

The corner of Rai's mouth twisted upwards in amusement. Well, it looked like his immediate plans to go to bed had officially been shot down in flames.

xsxsxsxsxs

Rai placed his teacup back down onto the saucer with a slight click. He sat back in his chair and regarded his daughter as she tackled her second cookie.

She picked it up, dipped half of it into her cup of milk, shook it to get the excess off, then bit off the milky half, and placed the dry half back down onto her plate. She chewed carefully, and thoroughly, as though compelled to savor the taste of the milk coated treat for every ounce it was worth.

Her brother, sitting on the opposite side of him, had no such compulsion to eat his cheese crackers as cleanly as she was eating her vanilla cookies.

He picked up a cracker, stuffed the whole thing in his mouth, and crunched it up, the crumbs seeping out the corners of his mouth. They fell down onto his shirt, where he brushed them onto his pants, after which, they found their way down onto the floor.

Rai curled his fingers around his chin and found his eyes drawn to the teddy bear sitting behind his daughter's glass of milk. It stared straight ahead, seemingly at his daughter, as though mesmerized by her dainty eating habits.

He had finally given up his bear when his son was born. The memory of placing it in his crib the day he came home from the hospital came back to him as clearly as if it was yesterday.

Oh, how he loved Ninja Fred. He dragged it everywhere he went, he included it in every thing he did, he talked to it at night after he'd been put to bed. For a while there, it had seemed that the two were inseparable.

Last summer, though, after his sister had suffered a particularly bad nightmare, he had declared himself to be a big boy now, and said he thought that she needed the bear more than him. Quite willingly, she gave up her pink stuffed bunny, and took the little bear from her brother with a sniffle and a hug.

Actually, he still felt kind of sorry for the pink bunny, which now sat on a shelf by her window.

On the other hand, there was a lot to be said for the fact that his son would escape the kind of teasing he'd endured from his friends over the fact that he still slept with a teddy.

Especially from a certain girl who had ended up becoming his wife.

He picked up his tea, drained the last drops of liquid from it and placed his hands on the table.

"Lady, and gentleman, it is time to get back to bed."

After a chorus of 'awwwws', which were meant for no other purpose than to try to stall him, he managed to get them to finish their crackers and cookies, and drink their milk.

Hand in hand they made their way down the halls to their starting point at the bedrooms.

After tucking them each in, he turned his footsteps toward his own bedroom, in which, the woman he called wife, friend, lover, and, confidant, was already sound asleep.

Or so he thought.

She rolled over at the feel of his weight shifting the bed when he lay down, and reached over to drape an arm across his chest.

"I missed you. You're late," she murmured sleepily.

"Sorry, kids came after me."

She nestled her cheek against his collar bone. "Oh. Did you cave in and do the cookie/cracker thing?"

He smirked. "Like you never do the same when they come after you."

She smiled. "Busted."

He laughed softly, and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer into a full embrace.

"Kimi?"

"Mmmmm?"

"Have I told you lately how much I absolutely adore you?"

She giggled. "Yes, you have. But you can tell me again."

"I absolutely adore you, my fiery little dragon pepper."

"I adore you, too. Now go to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am."

_Raimundo Pedrosa you are a lucky, lucky man._

And with that final thought, he closed his eyes, and relaxed, a small smile remaining on his face as he drifted off into the realm of sleep.

finis

* * *

So, how was that?

Too fluffy, not fluffy enough, just the right amount of fluffy?

You know, I had a cat named Fluffy once…but that has nothing to do with this fic.

Anyway, if you likie, leave a reviewie.

TTFN, Nori  
_this is no pie!_ (my new XS saying. it's a Rai quote)


End file.
